Irresistible Orange Chutney

Irresistible Orange Chutney

It goes very well with Parathas, Dosas and even with Curd-Rice. In our family, we relish and finish this almost as a sabzi with chapatis :-)

Health tips: Orange peels are excellent for cholesterol control.

Ingredients:

1. Finely chopped Orange peels - 1 cup
2. Finely chopped Orange flesh, de-seeded, de-fibered (preferable) - 1.5 cups
3. 1 lemon size Tamarind pulp
4. 2 teaspoonful jaggery powder or couple of de-seeded Dates
5. Salt, Turmeric powder, Chilly powder, Hing to taste

Procedure

1. Heat oil in a Kadhai, add mustard seeds to splutter
2. Add Hing, turmeric and chilly powder
3. Add the Orange peels and salt. Sim the gas and cover the kadhai. Wait for 4-5 minutes for the peels to soften.
4. Add the flesh of the Oranges, cover the kadhai and wait for 4-5 minutes.
5. Add the Tamrind and Jaggery. Cover the Kadhai and wait for 10 minutes.
6. The entire mixture in the Kadhai will turn to a dark brown, Jam like consistency.
7. Bring the mixture to room temperature and store the chutney in glass container in refrigerator.

The shell life for this chutney should be around a month. But I do not vouch for that. Once made, this chutney gets finished off, way before its expected shelf life :-)

Tomato Dosa

This dosa brings a very welcome variation for the regular breakfast in Tamil families. For others, it sounds like a great treat!

Ingredients:

* 1 1/4 cup raw rice and 2 tbsps of tur dal, soaked in water for 2-3 hrs

* 2 tomatoes chopped

* 2 tbsp grated fresh coconut (optional)

* 2-3 dried red chillies

* 1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves (optional)

* salt to taste

* oil as required

Procedure:

1 Drain and grind smoothly the rice and tur dal with chopped tomatoes, dried red chillies, grated fresh coconut, coriander leaves, salt and little water to form a dosa-like batter.

2 Heat non-stick tawa on high flame till hot, reduce heat, pour a ladle full of dosa batter, spread the batter with the bottom of the ladle evenly making circles to form a dosa and drizzle with some oil along the edges. Cook on medium heat for 1-2 mts and increase to high flame for a few seconds and flip the other side and cook for 20-30 seconds or till done.

3 Serve hot with coconut chutney, small onion chutney or molaha podi.

Sunday chickpeas Pulao

On a lazy and rainy Sunday this sounds like an easy treat :-)

Ingredients for the chickpeas pulao:
1. 1 cup basmati rice (wash it at least 2 hours back keep it for drying on a colander)
2. A handful chickpeas, boiled with salt
3. Coarsely ground masala: 4 green cardamoms, 2-3 peppercorns, 2 bay leaves, 1/2 inch cinnamon stick
4. 1 tea spoonful cumin seeds, pinch of turmeric powder, salt, 1/2 tea spoon sugar
5. 1 tomato finely chopped, 1 green chilly (not very hot one) slit lengthwise

Process:
1. Heat sunflower or groundnut cooking oil in a pressure cooker
2. Put cumin seeds and bay leaves in the hot oil and stir still crackling sound comes. Put the slit green chilly
3. Put pinch of turmeric powder, salt and sugar
4. Put ground masala and rice in the cooker and keep stirring till the rice starts changing color (become slightly whitish)
5. Put the tomato and stir for 2 mins.
6. Put 2 cups of water and close the cooker.
7. Switch of the gas after 2 whistles.
8. Let the pressure release and then open the cooker lid. Bring it to room temperature.
9. Transfer the Pulao to a serving vessel. Enjoy with curd and chips (roasted papad for the weight watchers).

Shahi Dal

The name suggests a very involved recipe. But it is one of the laziest recipes I have ever known. I learnt it from my father, another cooking enthusiast like me. It combines the goodness of spinach (palak) and whole  pulses (dal) and avoids using oil. Ideal for the health watchers.

Ingredients:
* Green moong dal - 1/2 cup
* Black masoor dal - 1/4th cup
* Washed and finely chopped spinach (palak) - 1 cup
* water - 1 cup

* Finely chopped onion - 1

* Finely chopped ginger, garlic, green chilies - 2 tea spoon

* Finely chopped tomatoes - 2

* Turmeric powder: 1/4th tea spoon

* Salt to taste

* Butter (optional) - 1 tbsp

Procedure:

1. Bring water and salt to boil in a pressure cooker

2. Add the chopped ginger, garlic, green chilies and continue boiling for 1 min

3. Add the onion and continue boiling for 1 min

4. Add the Dal and continue boiling for 1 min

5. Add the spinach and continue boiling for 1 min

6. Add tomatoes and continue boiling for 1 min

7. Close the cooker lid and wait till the first whistle.

8. Lower (sim) the gas

9. Cook in the cooker for 10 min with low heat

10. Turn of the cooker

11. After the pressure is released, open the lid and serve hot with rice or whole wheat bread.

12. Topped with a spoon of butter, this tastes rich. But adding butter is not mandatory to get the naturally awesome taste of this dal.

Tomato pasta

I like the whole wheat or durum wheat pasta. They are slightly coarse in grain structure. But much tastier and healthier. I combine vegetables in pasta just to make it a complete meal. Instead of veggies, you can add mushroom (sautéed) or chicken as well.

Ingredients:
* Pasta boiled - 2 cups (Tip: Add bit of salt and 1 tea spoon olive oil while boiling pasta. Strain it immediately after it turns soft. Pour cold water on the strainer after pouring the hot pasta. This will keep the pasta firm)
* Cheese grated - 2 tbsp
* Butter - 1/2 tbsp
* Chopped chunky veggies (Carrot, zucchini, Brocoli, capsicum) - 1/2 cup
* Garlic - 3-4 cloves, chopped fine
* Milk - 1/2 cup
* Flour (I use whole wheat flour, not Maida or refined flour) - 1 tbsp
* Tomato puree - 1/2 cup (soak tomatoes in a covered pan with hot water till the skin of tomatoes come out. Then roughly chop the de-skinned  tomatoes and puree them in a blender. Alternative: buy readymade tomato puree from shops)
* Basil leaves - handful (you can use any other seasoning like oregano etc)
* Sun dried tomatoes (optional) - handful
* Salt, Pepper - to taste

Procedure:
1. In an oak/kadai, heat the butter. Add the flour and fry in low heat.
2. Slowly add the milk and keep stirring continuously. This will prepare the while sauce. keep the sauce aside.
3. Heat olive oil in the kadai/oak. Add garlic and fry till light brown.
4. Add the veggies and saute till almost soft
5. Add the tomato puree. and fry a bit
6. Add the boiled pasta and the seasoning while stirring continuously.
7. Add the white sauce slowly.
8. Cook open for 2 minutes and switch of the heat.
9. Serve hot with toasted brown bread.

Wheat-a-Meal

On a cold and lazy evening, this serves as a fast, tasty and wholesome dinner. This makes a ideal meal for fussy kids as well as the weight watchers.

Ingredients:
* Wheat Dalia (broken wheat) - 1/2 cup, lightly roasted and kept aside (you can also buy roasted Dalia)
* Moong dal - 1/2 cup
* Chopped chunky vegetables (carrot, potato, beans, capsicum, peas, cauliflower, zuchini) - 1 cup
* Chopped onion - 1
* Finely chopped ginger, garlic, green chilies - 2 tea spoon
* Finely chopped tomatoes - 2
* Turmeric powder: 1/4th tea spoon
* Salt to taste
* Water - 1.5 cups
* Ghee (optional) - 1 tbsp

Procedure:
1. Bring water and salt to boil in a pressure cooker
2. Add the chopped ginger, garlic, green chilies and continue boiling for 1 min
3. Add the onion and continue boiling for 1 min
4. Add the Dal and continue boiling for 1 min
5. Add the Dalia and continue boiling for 1 min
6. Add tomatoes and continue boiling for 1 min
7. Close the cooker lid and wait till the first whistle.
8. Lower (sim) the gas
9. Cook in the cooker for 10 min with low heat
10. Turn of the cooker
11. After the pressure is released, open the lid and serve hot with yoghurt and roasted papad.
12. I also serve this with hot mango pickles.

Besan Laddu

Ingredients

4 Cups Besan with a handful of semolina (suji).
3 Cups sugar, powdered
1 Cup ghee
Few cardamoms - powdered
Powdered cashews and other nuts as you wish.

4 tablespoon warm milk

Procedure

1. Sieve besan. Roast it a bit and keep aside. 

2. Heat ghee and add besan to it and mix well. Cook till the cooked smell comes. 

3. Sprinkle a little warm milk into the mixture and see the foam rising up. Mix throughly.

4. Add the cardamoms and powdered cashews and other nuts. 

5. Let it cool down completely to the room temperature.

6. Add the powdered sugar and mix well. 

7. Transfer into another vessel and let it cool just so much that you can shape it. Grease your palms with a little ghee while shaping into balls.

Basil mushroom risotto

We have a restaurant very near to the house. There we tasted this first. My husband and I immediately fell for it. In fact Basil Mushroom Risotto has become a motivation for my brother to visit us! I tried to reverse engineer the recipe and the experiment was successful in the first attempt!


Ingredients:
1. One cup rice with thick grains (for the perfectionists, buy risotto rice)
2. 250 ml milk
3. 500 gms mushroom, finely chopped
4. 6 table spoon grated cheese
5. Sun-dried tomatoes (optional)
6. Basil leaves
7. Salt, pepper to taste
8. 1 table spoon flour (I use wheat atta, you can use maida)
Procedure:
1. Make cream of mushroom soup. Here is the recipe for that:
   1.1 Heat oil in a pan, fry onion with some salt till just brown
   1.2 add 250 gms of chopped mushrooms, fry till it shrinks in size
   1.3 add the flour while stirring continuously
   1.4 slowly add half of the milk and equal amount of water
   1.5 wait till the mixture cools down a bit. Then blend it to soup consistency using liquidiser/mixer.


2. Heat olive oil in a pan and stir fry 250 gms mushrooms in high flame. Keep aside
3. Half cook rice. Lower the heat. Slowly add the mushroom soup and milk till rice is fully cooked
4. Add basil leaves, grated cheese, fried mushroom and sun-dried tomatoes while stirring continuously
5. Switch off the stove and keep it covered for 2-3 mins.
6. Garnish with fresh basil leaves and serve hot with toasted garlic bread

Spanish omlette

Ingredients

1. 3 eggs (serves 2-3 people)

2. 1 medium size onion finely chopped

3. 1/2 capsicum finely chopped

4. 3 table spoons of grated carrot
5. 3 table spoons of grated carrot

6. 2 table spoon grated cheese

7. 1/2 tomato finely chopped

8. salt, pepper to taste

9. oil/butter

10. finely chopped coriander leaves

Procedure

1. Mix all ingredients with an egg beater.

2. Heat 2 tsp oil on the non-stick fry pan

3. Pour the mixture

4. Lower the heat and cover till you can lift the entire omlette with a wooden spatula

5. Turn the omlette and fry slightly.

6. Sprinkle pepper powder and serve hot with toasted brown bread

Fresh papaya and orange jam

I made this jam in the morning. It was an instant hit with my kids. We do not need to buy and store jam. Just make it in one morning and it gets over by in just 2-3 days of breakfast. Enjoy with your family!

Ingredients:

6 cups (1 kg) papaya
1.5 cup (275 g) sugar
2 tablespoons grated orange rind
1/2 cup orange/grapefruit/lemon juice (optional)

Procedure
1. Peel the papaya, remove the seeds and cut it into small pieces.
2. Add sugar to it and mash the papaya pieces well.
3. Add the orange juice
4. Cook the mash on a low heat, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved.
5. Cook until papaya is well cooked and the liquid has reduced.
6. Stir this into the papaya puree and simmer for about 7 minutes.
7. Fill the hot jam in sterilized pots. Close and refrigerate when cool.

Set Dosa

Served hot with mixed veggies it becomes a complete meal by itself.
Ingredients:
1. 1 cup raw rice
2. 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
3. 1 cup poha (beaten rice)
4. 1/4th cup curd
5. Salt to taste
6. Pinch of fruit salt (Eno)
Procedure:
1. Soak the rice and fenugreek seeds in warm water for 2 hours
2. Wash the poha
3. Grind the rice
4. Add the poha and grind again (rice will take longer to grind, so it is better to add poha later)
5. Do not add too much water.
6. Keep the batter in an airtight container for 6 hours (I keep it inside the switched off microwave overnight). The batter should get fermented.
7. If the batter does not ferment properly, add the fruit salt. Bring the batter to dosa consistency.
8. Lightly grease a non-stick tawa.
9. Spread the batter, but not very thin.
10. Add little oil at the edges. Do not turn the dosa. Wait for some time till both sides get cooked.
11. Take out the dosa and serve hot with pickle and mixed veggies (find recipe below)

Bengali style sweet mango pickle

This is from my own nostalgic childhood. My grandmom used to make 5-10 kilos of it and used to ask me to keep a watch on the pickle during the summer holidays. The aim was to make sure that my cousins do not steal the pickle before it gets ready. She had faith on me! Let me confess, I used to take that opportunity to steal the half done pickle myself! This pickle is indeed incredible.
Now I make this pickle myself and the jars get empty by my husband, friends and kids (and of course myself) before it gets ready!
Ingredients:
Green (Raw) mango - 1 kg (should be with white and hard flesh)
5 spices (Bengali paanch phoraan): 3 tbsp
Dry red chilly: 4-5 (according to strength and taste)
Fenugreek powder (dry roast and grind): 125 gms
Turmeric powder: 150 gms
Salt: 1 tbsp
Jaggery: 250 gms (grated)
Procedure:
1. Wash clean the mangoes and pat them completely dry with a dry towel.
2. Chop the green mangoes into 2 inch long and 1/2 inch wide (thin) pieces. Laeve the seeds.
3. Mix the mangoes with turmeric and salt and spread the mangoes on a wide vessel. Cover the vessel with a thin cloth and put the vessel in the hot sun for one day.
4. Melt the jaggery (might need to add little water for melting) in a kadai (a wide mouth cooking pot) on the gas.
5. Mix the mangoes with the melted jaggery after taking the kadai off the gas.
6. Spread the jaggery mixed mango pieces again on the wide vessel covered with the cloth (so that dust does not come in) and put that in the hot sun for 7-8 days.
7. After 7-8 days the mangoes should have shrunk to half of its original dimensions and the jaggery juice should have got inside (taste one piece for the correct level of sweetness, as per your choice. I prefer to keep it sweet-sour).
8. Dry roast the spices and the chillies till it leaves the aroma. Cool it down. Then coarse grind it in the mixie.
9. Mix the spice and the mangoes thoroughly and transfer it to a dry glass/ceramic jar. Close the lid. Put the glass bottle in sun for another 4 days.
The sweet-sour mango pickle is ready for you to enjoy! This can be preserved in a glass jar (no traces of water) for at least one year.


Note: Please make sure that not a single drop of water enters the mangoes or the spices during the process. Use completely dry vessel, jar and spoons.

Art of Avakaya

Ingredients:
Green (Raw) mango - 1 kg (should be with white and hard flesh)
Sesame Oil - 500 gms
Mustard powder (dry roast and grind): 250 gms
Fenugreek powder (dry roast and grind): 125 gms
Turmeric powder: 150 gms
Red chilly powder: 200 gms
Salt: 250 gms


Procedure:
Wash clean the mangoes and pat them completely dry with a dry towel.
Chop the green mangoes into 1 inch cubical pieces.
Mix all the ingredients (including the mangoes) in a wide vessel. Put the mixture into a dry glass/ceramic jar. Close the lid. Keep it aside in a dark and cool place for 8 days. The Avakaya pickle is ready for you to enjoy!
Note: Please make sure that not a single drop of water enters the mangoes or the spices during the process. Use completely dry vessel, jar and spoons.

Easy Almond Barfi

Ingredients
* 1.5 cup almond
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 cup water
* 1-2 tea spoon ghee
Procedure
1. Soak the almond in the previous day and peel them. Dry them thoroughly.
2. Powder the almonds.
3. Boil the water in a wide vessel (kadai). Add sugar, bring the mixture to one string consistency.
4. Add almond powder and keep stirring.
5. Wait till it start forming lumps. Add the ghee and stir further.
6. Wait till the entire things starts leaving the walls of kadai in the form of a lump.
7. Spread the mixture on a greased plate. Cut into shape immediately.